


What A Quarter's Worth

by indigorose50



Category: LazyTown
Genre: Elf Sportacus (LazyTown), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fae Robbie Rotten, Fluff, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Secret Friend Day 2.0
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-19
Updated: 2017-09-19
Packaged: 2018-12-31 15:59:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12135969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indigorose50/pseuds/indigorose50
Summary: Gift for Secret Friends Day 2.0!Robbie hasn't seen Sportacus in almost a week. Does Penny know where he is? Does Jives? And WHY is Sportacus not in town?





	What A Quarter's Worth

**Author's Note:**

> My Secret Friend Day gift for pointy-ears-pointy-beards on tumblr! I really hope you like it! :D
> 
> Penny's design is based on [this lovely fan art!](http://http://gayroyaltydraws.tumblr.com/post/159387193124/quick-shot-at-a-penny-redesign-if-she-were-in-the) I like it a lot better than the play's design.

“If you give me a quarter, I’ll tell you where Sportacus is,” Said a high, irritating voice behind Robbie. Though _any_ voice was irritating when he was so obviously trying to nap.

“I would barely want to give you the time of day much less a quarter,” he grumbled without opening his eyes. He was on a bench in Lazytown’s park. It was such a nice day out and he hated to waste good napping weather, he had told himself earlier. He regretted leaving his lair now that Ribbon Girl was pestering him.

Despite his response, Penny did not leave. She poked at his forehead, “I know you’re up here waiting for him.”

“What?”

“Yeah, you’ve been coming up here every day hoping to see him.”

That got him to open his eyes. He glared at her ridiculous ribbon, “I am _not_ waiting for him!”

She grinned. She was missing a tooth. Children were strange. “I know you wanna see him,” she said in a sing-song voice, “You’ve been here every day for a week. You’re never up here that much!”

Robbie shut his eyes again since the glare seemed to be useless, “I can go wherever I want as often as I want. I am an adult. _You_ are a child. So _scram_.”

Penny poked his forehead twice, “I can tell you where he is if you give me a quarter.”

“Go away or I’m going to stuff you in my canon.”

“Fine, lay around here all day. You’ll never find him that way.”

Robbie growled and sat up. Penny, the little devil, was grinning again. Both her pockets were turned out and her hair was pulled to the side, held in place with her accursed ribbon. “Listen here, Peggy,” Robbie snapped, “I only want to see Sportaloon because it’s hard to run someone out of town when they don’t _show up_.”

“It’s Penny,” the brat corrected, like Robbie cared, “and I can tell you where he is! Just gimmie a quarter!”

“ _Fine_!” Robbie stood and fumbled in his pocket. “There!” He thrust the quarter into Penny’s waiting hand.

Penny held the coin up to examine it closely. She sniffed it. She weighed it in her hand. She bit it. If Robbie had been less annoyed he might have pointed out that the coin wasn’t made of gold. Finally, she nodded and stuffed the quarter in her own pocket.

“Well? Where is he?”

Penny shrugged, “Jive’s saw him this morning. He’ll tell you if you ask him.” She skipped away. That had _not_ been worth a quarter.

Now that there was no child in earshot, Robbie let himself curse. His nap ruined, he stomped away from the park. Stupid brat. So what if he was worried that Sportaloop had been scarce all week? So what if Robbie didn’t know where he kept disappearing to? So what if Robbie kind of, sort of, maybe, missed him a little bit?

With another curse, Robbie kicked at a rock in his path. He missed and stumbled. He glared down at the rock. “You did that on purpose,” he told it. The rock did not answer. But someone _did_ laugh. Robbie looked around, horrified that someone might have witnessed his spectacular miss.

On the other side of the wall to his left, out on the sports field, were Ziggy and Jives playing soccer. Apparently Ziggy had just dived for the ball to block the goal, because he was sprawled out on his side in front of the net. Jives was laughing and pointing at the ball behind Ziggy.

Robbie hopped the wall and marched over to them. “Hives!” he called.

Jives turned around, “It’s Jives.”

“Whatever. Do you know where Sportadork is?”

Jives raised an eyebrow. Being the oldest of the seven, he was always a little more suspicious of Robbie than the other kids. He looked Robbie over, the strings of his yellow hoodie swinging. “Why do _you_ wanna know?”

“Dime said you knew. Where is he? In the forest? With the Mayor? Out jogging?”

“Nah, he went back to his ship after he helped me with my skateboard this morning.”

Robbie threw up his hands, “ _I_ could have told you that!” he yelled, “Of _course_ he’s in his ship! Where else does he ever go?!”

Jives straightened his green hat and bit his lip, “Well… if you’re lookin’ for him you should know…” Robbie quit his dramatics to listen. “Sportacus didn’t look… okay this morning.”

“What do you mean?”

“I think he’s sick.”

“Sick?” Robbie let out a laugh, “The king of health can’t get _sick_.”

“His eyes were all red. And he looked real tired too.” Suddenly, Jives glared up at Robbie, “So if you have some plan you’re cookin’ up, _forget it_. Sportacus isn’t up for it.”

Ziggy was approaching them with the soccer ball, looking between Robbie and Jives. Robbie flicked one of the stings of Jives’ hoodie. “Don’t tell me what to do, Jenkins.”

“You didn’t even _try_ that time, man!”

“Hi, Robbie!” Ziggy chirped.

“Good bye,” Robbie responded. He turned on his heel and left the sports field. He still didn’t think this had been worth his quarter.

Robbie half walked, half stomped his way over to the center of town. That big ugly ship was just above him. He narrowed his eyes at it.

So, Sportacus had locked himself in his airship, presumably because he was sick. At first glance the explanation answered all of Robbie’s questions: Sportasick wouldn’t want to hang around town for fear of the children catching what he had. But why wouldn’t Sportacus just tell the kids that? Why just help them and then run back to the ship? The brats would probably make sure _everyone_ knew so people would be more careful and not give Sportacus any reason to have to come down. On the other hand, if he wasn’t sick why were his eyes all red like Jives described? Why wasn’t he sleeping well?

The only way to figure this out would be to talk to the blue kangaroo himself. Robbie began pacing. He could put himself in danger and try to corner Sportacus when he came down, but Sportacus would just retreat back to his ship. And the idea of putting himself in harm’s way just to see Sportacus sounded more like something the kids would try.

Robbie would have to get up to the ship and talk to Sportacus there. The ladder wasn’t down, and it would take time for Robbie to bring his canon from the lair. There was only one way up.

The center of town was deserted. Robbie took a quick around to make sure. With a sigh of resignation, Robbie undid his vest. He closed his eyes and flexed his back.

Wings, thin and butterfly-like erupted from Robbie’s shoulder blades. The outer edges were a deep violet, becoming more magenta in the middle, before finally become a creamy orange near the center. Robbie flapped his wings experimentally. His fear of heights had kept him on the ground for so long he thought he would have forgotten how to fly. But he flapped his wings more purposefully and felt himself float up a few inches with ease.

Apparently, Fairies never forgot how to fly.

Clutching his vest in his hands, Robbie took off into the sky. It felt wonderful to have wind blowing through his hair again, to feel his magic rushing around him, to be able to stretch his wings into the open air. Why didn’t he do this more often? What was he so afraid of?

With an excited grin, Robbie took in the scenery around him. He looked up at the clouds, over at the airship, and down at the… shrinking town.

Oh. _That_.

Robbie’s wings faltered ever so slightly and his heart nearly stopped. He shut his eyes and muttered “don’t look down” over and over under his breath until his stomach settled again. He tilted his head straight up before he dared open his eyes again. For the rest of his short flight, Robbie kept his eyes on the ship. This was _ridiculous_. The dumbest thing he had ever done, right behind paying a child _actual money_ from his own pocket.

When he reached the bottom of the ship, Robbie banged urgently on the circle he knew opened up. After a few moments, the platform dropped down and Robbie grabbed onto the pole gratefully. The platform pulled him up into the ship. Trying to steady his breathing, Robbie clung to the pole.

Inside, standing beside the platform, was Sportacus. He was staring at Robbie, puzzled.

“Robbie? How did you-” He stopped himself, his eyes fixing on something over Robbie’s shoulder.

“My vest has a charm on it to make it easier to keep them hidden,” Robbie explained, knowing Sportacus was looking at his wings, “You can ogle them later if you want but right now—”

“You’re _Fae_?!”

Shock and bewilderment flooded Robbie, chasing out the fear he had felt a minute ago, “I—yes?? You didn’t know?!”

“No!”

“But I’ve used magic in front of you hundreds of times! I use them for my disguises!”

“I thought you _made_ all those outfits.”

“Well yes but I couldn’t trick _you_ with them without a glamor charm or two.”

“O-oh,” Sportacus’ eyes kept shifting from Robbie’s face to his wings.

Rolling his own eyes, Robbie turned so Sportacus could see them full display. “Wings. Fae. Are we clear?” He gave Sportacus a flat look over his shoulder. He saw Sportacus nod, still looking mystified. Robbie flexed his back once more and felt the wings disappear again. He shrugged his vest back on.

“Is that why you slouch a lot?”

“We’re not making this about me,” Robbie said, “I have some questions for _you_.”

For now that Robbie wasn’t trying to calm himself down or explain something as obvious as being Fae to Sportacus, Robbie could pay full attention to the hero. As Jives said, he didn’t look well. His eyes were red, and they had bags under them. He was still in his usual uniform but lacked the cap. A mess of wavy blond hair covered his head instead. Robbie wondered if it was as soft as it looked. He shook his head. _Focus_.

“Questions for _me_?” Sportacus repeated.

“Yes. Why are you sulking up here all the time? You’re worrying— The _brats_ are worried about you. They’re more loud and annoying than usual and I can’t have that.”

Sportacus looked away, absently rubbing his arm, “I am not sulking.”

“Are you sick?”

“Not how you’re thinking…”

“Stop being cryptic!”

Sportacus swiped at his eyes, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I’ve worry everyone too. I will try to come down and play with the kids tomorrow. I will make sure they leave you alone.”

For some reason, that made Robbie feel extremely guilty. Sportacus still wasn’t looking at him, which didn’t help. Robbie followed his gaze to the bed at the back of the ship. It was covered in papers.  

“I can land the ship if you don’t want to fly back down, Robbie.”

“What is all that?” Robbie walked over to the bed, ignoring the question. He expected Sportacus to stop him, maybe snap at him about privacy, but Sportacus didn’t move as Robbie picked up a piece of paper. It appeared to be a letter, though Robbie couldn’t read a word of it. He picked up two more papers. More letters. Robbie turned to Sportacus, still waiting for an answer.

“From home,” Sportacus’ voice cracked when he said ‘home’. “From my parents, my brother, a few are even from some cousins.” He smiled even as tears gathered in his eyes, “But most of them are from my grandmother…” He wiped frantically at his face again. Robbie waited for him to collect himself.

Finally, Sportacus draw in a shaky breath. “The Elvish New Year is tomorrow. There’s usually a lot of celebrating in the week leading up to it. This is my fifth year missing it and I guess it just… made me a little home sick.”

Robbie looked back at the letters. “So you’ve just been up here re-reading these?”

“It’s the best piece of home I have right now.” Sportacus crossed the ship to stand beside Robbie. “I know it’s stupid, I’m not being a good hero this week, am I?” Robbie didn’t know what to say to that.

Sportacus scanned the letter Robbie was holding and chuckled, “That one’s from my father, from two years ago. He couldn’t figure out what to get Grandmother for her birthday and asked me for help. That’s how I knew he was desperate, I’m _terrible_ at gifts.”

By rights, Robbie was done here. He had his answers, he knew where Sportacus was; Robbie should probably be _happy_ the elf would be out of his way for a little while longer. But Robbie didn’t want to leave Sportacus like this. Something about seeing this cute bundle of blue looking so, well, _blue_ made Robbie’s heart twist in his chest.

Before he could think too much about it, Robbie snapped his fingers. The letters on the bed shifted towards the foot of it, leaving the top half free. Robbie sat down by the pillow. He took Sportacus gently by the wrist and tugged until he was sitting beside Robbie on the bed.

Robbie pressed the letter into Sportacus’ other hand, “Read them to me.”

Sportacus blinked, “You—You want to hear about my family?”

Robbie’s hand slipped from Sportacus’ wrist to his palm. He laced their fingers together. “Yes.”

A light blush appeared on Sportacus’ cheeks. Robbie preferred that to the tear tracks, though it did make him blush as well. With a grin, Sportacus squeezed his hand and began reading.

“‘Dear Sportacus. I’m really in trouble this time. I hope you can help me, but I very much doubt it given your history.’”

The two sat there, on the bed, for hours. Sometimes, Sportacus would let out a sob half way through a letter and Robbie would rub his thumb over Sportacus’ hand until Sportacus had calmed down. They both laughed at some of the letters from his brother. Robbie even got to share some of his own family’s stories.

They hadn’t even made it through half the stack of letters when Sportacus fell asleep. His head was nestled into Robbie’s chest, with Robbie’s arms wrapped around him. Robbie snapped his fingers again and the letters flew off the bed to gather on the other end of the ship. With more room now, Robbie stretched out, careful not to wake Sportacus who obvious had some sleep to catch up on. Robbie ran his fingers through that blond hair and smiled. It _was_ soft.

As he kissed Sportacus’ forehead and Sportacus snored softly against him, Robbie decided that this was, maybe, _probably_ , worth a quarter after all.   

**Author's Note:**

> As always, PLEASE tell me if you spot any mistakes. I'm running on a low amount of sleep so I may not have found every error.


End file.
